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Resonant Frequency For Soil and Rock

Hamzah Al-HashemiSr. Geotechnical/Civil Engineer at Arab Center for Engineering StudiesTop

Contributor
Greetings Dear All,

I would love to ask you if you aware of any method to determine or calculate the
following parameters from any geotechnical or geophysical tests or correlations:

1- Resonant Frequency
2- Spring Constant.
3- Dynamic Coefficient of Compression and Shear.

This will be so helpful for me.

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Olivier
Olivier Hurley
Master student at Sherbrooke University in geotechnical engineering
Top Contributor

I usually use FLAC 1D with a soil column. You can apply a sinus wave at the base of your soil column and
analyse the response at the top in the time domain. Otherwise, you can always calculate the resonnance period
(inverse to the frequency) with this formulation : T0=4H/Vs where Vs is the shear wave velocity average of
your deposit and H is the height of the deposit. You can either measure Vs on site or correlate it (N60) or qc. For
these correlations, I would suggest this article :

Karray, M., Lefebvre, G., Ethier, Y., Bigras, A., 2011, Influence of particle size on the correlation between
shear wave velocity and cone tip resistance, Can. Geotech. J.

For the evaluation of Gmax (for dynamic analysis) with small shear strain, Gmax=rho*Vs, and K = 3*Gmax
unsaturated and K = 4.5e9 for saturated soil as you want your saturated soil to be incompressible.

Regards,
OH
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John
John Focht
Technical Director at Rone Engineering Services, Ltd.
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Automatic spell checking can create some funny corrections: I believe that Olivier meant "sine" not "sinus"
waves.
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Olivier
Olivier Hurley
Master student at Sherbrooke University in geotechnical engineering
Top Contributor

2
 Indeed, french words can be tricky sometimes. The spell check is only active in french, my first language.
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Hamzah
Hamzah Al-Hashemi
Sr. Geotechnical/Civil Engineer at Arab Center for Engineering Studies
Top Contributor

Mr. Olivier really appreciate that help of you, it is so helpful for me and thanks god i have a shear wave velocity
obtained from seismic refraction test, again great thanks and warmest regards Mr. Olivier and Mr. John.
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Hien
Hien Ta
Ph.D Candidate at Washington State University

I am using resonant column test to determine the resonant frequency of soil or some materials. after that you can
calculate the shear wave velocity and shear modulus
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Hamzah
Hamzah Al-Hashemi
Sr. Geotechnical/Civil Engineer at Arab Center for Engineering Studies
Top Contributor

Thanks Dr. Hien, as I am understand this is direct way to obtain the resonant frequency from this test, but we
have been asked to provide the resonant frequency even though that we have shear velocities and modulus
values obtained from seismic refraction test and honestly i don't know the applications for resonant frequency
other than these parameters. And as Dr. Olivier advice to calculate the resonant frequency as the reciprocal of
Period (T = 4 H l Vs), once the resonance phenomenon occurs when the predominant frequency of the motion
equals the natural frequency of soil.
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Hamzah
Hamzah Al-Hashemi
Sr. Geotechnical/Civil Engineer at Arab Center for Engineering Studies
Top Contributor

N.B: Resonant Frequency can be significant in dynamic/Earthquake design but in soil mechanics or
geotechnical POV how the resonant frequency can affect the soil characteristics, Kindly if you have any
reference mentioned this affects and relations please advise.
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Olivier
Olivier Hurley
Master student at Sherbrooke University in geotechnical engineering
Top Contributor

Hi Mr. Al-Hashemi,

The resonance frequency as a great effect on soil structures, just as it does on buildings and bridges. Remember
that geometry can also affect your soil response, so a 1D analysis may not always be suited. You should have a
look at those manuals for reference on soils dynamic:

Robert Day, 2002, Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering Handbook.

Steven L. Kramer, 1996, Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering.

and for soil liquefaction specifically :

Idriss and Boulanger, 2008, EERI, Soil Liquefaction during Eartquake.

snd for dyanmic numerical analysis, you should read the ITASCA FLAC Dynamic manual.

Regards,

OH
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 Hamzah
Hamzah Al-Hashemi
Sr. Geotechnical/Civil Engineer at Arab Center for Engineering Studies
Top Contributor

Dear Dr. Olivier,

Great thanks for your help, I really need to read more about dynamic analysis and earthquake engineering and
these references seems to be enough as a start.

Best Regards
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